Influence of ERK on Nerve Cell Apoptosis of Cortex Following Traumatic Brain Injury in Rats

Objective: To investigate the effect of extracellular-signal regulated protein kinase (ERK) signal transduction mechanism in traumatic brain injury(TBI) in rats. Methods: The rat model of TBI was made according to the method of Marmarou(1994). A total of 92 male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into control and TBI groups. The rats in group of TBI were divided into 7 subgroups according to the time phase after brain injury,which were 10 min,30 min,3 h,6 h,24 h,48 h and 72 h. The expression of ERK was detected by immunohistochemical and Western blot methods. The expression of c-fos was detected by immunohistochemical method. The apoptosis of cortex cell was detected by TUNEL. Results: The activities of p-ERK1/2,c-fos and TUNEL positive cells were increased in TBI group compared to those in the control group. Conclusion: The excessive activation of ERK is one of mechanisms of nerve cell apoptosis by inducing c-fos protein following traumatic brain injury in rats.